09 August 2006

today the town talk published a your mail from david l wallin of new llano, [vernon parish] louisiana "Quotes need explanations" in it mr wallin points out that the city already has a sports arena its called the rapides parish coliseum and to add insult to injury the city has recently barred access from the north to the proposed downtown sports arena. wallin asks...does this make sense?..."...the city permanently blocked off a one-block segment of North Third Street, only three blocks away from the Riverfront Center, that will prevent direct access to the center from U.S. Highway 71 to the north."

mr wallin ends his letter by stating..."I'm sure both projects discussed will be completed..." this is where we differ and walling adds..."at what cost to the taxpayer?" well we certainly agree with him again, there.

all things considered the city council as well as the citizens of rapides parish should rethink changing the momentum from a sports arena to a downtown red river pier. think of the times we live in, we arent even going to discuss terrorism when one can consider looming natural disasters instead...what would we do if an earthquake happened, a storm, volcano(s) somewhere, what if the rivers and tributaries became the safe way to transport supplies and people? what are we going to do if theres no gas supply? or the supply isnt steady? theres no where for boats to tie up downtown if they had to. they couldnt even stop over at alexandria to gas up. we need a pier downtown at the river. so, while we are always up for a good time we have to consider the ominiousness of the times and do we really need more bread and circus's?

oh we still havent changed our minds that a downtown sports arena is just a pretense for a slushfund anyway. thats where we have a difference of opinion with mr wallin. we seriously doubt that a sports arena will ever be built,we predict that the only people that stand to make money here are a myriad of architects; engineers; surveyors; consultants at the end the city wont have either a sports arena or any money. what the city will have will be a very pretty architectural drawing...heh